Candidate Advertisements and Afro-Brazilian Political Marginalization

Abstract

Television is an important political tool in Latin America. In recognition of its ability to shape public opinion and influence political behavior, Brazilian electoral authorities provide political parties with free television airtime in the weeks preceding elections. While Brazil's publicly financed electoral program levels the playing field between parties, it may contribute to intraparty resource disparities. This article contends that racial considerations influence how party elites distribute television airtime and thus contribute to the political marginalization of Afro-Brazilians. Using original data from Rio de Janeiro's 2012 municipal elections, it shows that party officials provide Afro-Brazilian candidates significantly less airtime than their white counterparts, even after controlling for theoretically important nonracial candidate characteristics. Moreover, it shows that there are racial differences in how candidates use the airtime they are awarded. Afro-Brazilian candidates are nearly ten times more likely than whites to focus on racial issues in their campaign ads. These results provide new insight about why Afro-Brazilians are rarely elected to public office and, when elected, the types of issues they may address.A televisão é uma importante ferramenta política na América Latina. Reconhecendo sua habilidade em conformar uma opinião pública e influenciar o comportamento político, a lei eleitoral brasileira concede tempo gratuito de TV para que os partidos políticos possam apresentar suas campanhas nas semanas anteriores ao período eleitoral. Enquanto o horário político eleitoral gratuito busca nivelar a competição entre esses partidos, ele expressa também as desigualdades internas a eles na distribuição do tempo de TV dentre seus candidatos. Nosso argumento neste artigo é que vieses raciais influenciam o modo como os dirigentes partidários distribuem o tempo de televisão gratuito e, assim, contribuem para a marginalização política das candidaturas afro-brasileiras (pardas e pretas). Utilizando dados inéditos das eleições municipais de 2012 no município do Rio de Janeiro, mostramos que dirigentes partidários distribuem menos tempo de televisão para candidatos afro-brasileiros do que para seus pares brancos, mesmo quando controlamos outras de suas características. Mais importante ainda, nós encontramos diferenças no modo como os candidatos utilizam o tempo de campanha que recebem. Candidatos afro-brasileiros tendem a focar dez vezes mais em questões raciais do que brancos, por exemplo. Esses resultados trazem novas perspectivas sobre porque candidatos afro-brasileiros são pouco eleitos e os tipos de questões que eles abordam quando eleitos.Television is central to modern political campaigns and arguably the most politically influential medium in Latin America. As a result of historically low levels of literacy and limited newspaper circulation, Latin Americans learn about politics principally by watching television (

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